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The Beauty of Goals

We started a new year five days ago. And as always, we all, if not most of us, made resolutions.

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Mine is to write 2000 words a day on my project six days a week. But it’ll probably turn out to be seven days a week but I won’t feel guilty if it is six days. And I have to tell you, it changed everything in my writing. It gave me purpose and though I hate to use this word, it gave me dedication. “Dedication” to me sounds like a cruel word for some reason. Every time I hear the word I almost hear a whip crack. But it changed my attitude towards writing. And after just a few days of sitting down and writing with a goal to reach, writing became so much easier. The story is getting done faster and in a more organized fashion.

Before, I had the attitude that there is always tomorrow to get a few more pages done. And I’d go slacking off doing nothing with my life. Another day wasted. I made a promise to another author that I had to stop that attitude. Then I gulped hard wondering how I was going to do that. To be honest, at first, it sounded like empty words. Even to me! After thinking about it, I decided that it wasn’t going to be that way. So for the next few nights, I sat at my laptop and did the math on how many words had to be accomplished. It wasn’t hard at all. As a matter of fact, I never did 2000 words. I always did more than 2000 words. The first time I did it, I was shocked. I felt so accomplished for the first time in a long time.

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I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m telling you this because I know how difficult it is at times to get motivated to write. Honestly, I wasn’t. At least not every night (or day). Having a goal to reach before opening up that file is a motivator. And should be used as one every day you need to write.

Another goal everyone should have is a date as to when your project is to be published. Give yourself a deadline. Otherwise, nothing happens. Not only give yourself a deadline but tell someone what that deadline is. Have them hold you to it. Make yourself answerable to that person.

Education is a great thing to have. Take about an hour to read somebody who is an award-winning author who had a blog/vlog or some kind of teaching tool to give you the know-how to do what you want to do. Do that every day if you can. It may not be as important as you writing, but it is important that you know your craft. Especially grammar. But, much to my surprise, I learned there is a formula to writing.

Certain things have to happen at different stages of the story. Your protagonist has to be crushed by the antagonist at a certain interval in your story. You have to know what to do if the storyline changes. And believe me, that’s a surprise to you when you’re writing and the story goes into a different direction than you planned. I wonder to myself; How did that happen?? Because it wasn’t in the outline.

Now I have to rewrite the previous scenes before it or rewrite the outline. Ouch!